|
Bonnie Glass
(Picture Not Available) |
Stage Name |
Birth Name |
| Bonnie Glass |
n/a |
Bonnie Glass was another very
talented and successful dancer in vaudeville Theaters during the
1910s. Started her career as a Musical Comedy soloist, she found
she had a knack for dancing. Glass managed the popular 'Cafe Montmarte'
club in New York in 1915 and would hire many dancers to dance
with her in her shows at the Cafe, sometimes these partnerships
would last for months and others for the evening. With the BF
Keith's Palace Theater opening up to Vaudeville in 1913, she would
soon headline there. Glass would partner many future movie stars
such as Clifton Webb (1914) and Valentino (1915.)
Glass spotted Webb at
the already succesful club dance at the 'Jardin
de Danse' in New York and seeked him for a dance partner.
Webb had a very long track record as a dancer but not in Ballroom
and is reported that Glass trained him. |
| They became romantically
involved as well as sharing some very successful dance performances.
They had a falling out and Webb opened a dance studio with his
mother and continued to perform.
Rudolpho
Valentino was a Taxi
dancer (Gigalo) at Maxim's
where Glass performed and asked him to partner with her on her
tours. They were billed as "Bonnie Glass and Rudolpho"
during the 1915-1916 season. They had some success and failures
as a dance team, but the cincher for Bonnie was when Valentino
was arrested for Black Mail (some say Burglary) which ended
the Glass-Valentino partnership in which she testified even though
Valentino was found innocent. Bonnie Glass is said to have retired
in 1917 probably due to some of her Club and Keith's Vaudeville
tours being reported as a failure, along with Valentino and the
huge success of Webb's studio. Valentino went on to dance with
Joan
Sawyer.
During Glass's heyday, she would basically
run the whole show at the clubs, doing the choreography, costume
design, set design if needed etc. Because of this and her hiring
her own partners, she would receive first billing which was unusual
at the time with the exceptions of Mae
Murray, Joan Sawyer and Glass, all three basically did the
same thing. It is interesting to note that these three ladies
all worked at the Palace, Maxims
etc. |
Ballrooms